Columbia Room to Return With ‘Spirits Library,’ Reserved Seats

Columbia Room is set to reemerge in Shaw in the next few weeks with a “spirits library” and a tasting room that requires reservations.

The defunct cocktail bar, which was inside the now-shuttered Passenger until last winter, is slated to reopen Feb. 9 in Blagden Alley, its owner announced today. Columbia Room is one of four Shaw bars for owner Derek Brown, who also owns Mockingbird Hill, Eat the Rich and Southern Efficiency on 7th Street NW.

In the 20-seat library, visitors can eat $5 gin-soaked olives and other bar snacks and sip a bison grass vodka and apple juice “Give Me a Home” for $12 and a gin-compressed pear “No One You Know” for $16, among other cocktails. Drinks in the library will range from $12 to $17.

The tasting room, which will hold 14 people, will have multi-course menus that include drinks and snacks. A seat in the room will start at $75, for three courses.

The new Columbia Room also will have an outdoor “punch garden,” which will start serving punches in the spring.

“We’ve created a bar where both the guest and cocktail take center stage,” Brown said.